Rituals’ Narrative Logics

Abstract

This article focuses on a double identity of rituals: the origin and main structure of rituals is narrative, and they represent a particular logic which aims at establishing a different quality of life. The narrative structure coincides with a typical characteristic of the human mind: the commemoration of striking dramatic or liberating events. Hence the ongoing concern to remember; the anamnesis intends to prevent that what among people never should be forgotten remains present in the individual and collective memory. Rituals are the most powerful means to keep memory alive. The coincidence of the faithfulness to a living tradition and the authentic commitment to present human concerns guarantees that the ritual anamnesis introduces qualitative change among the people involved.